City Hall had told the Government it must act to avoid ‘spiralling’ homelessness this winter after new data showed rising rough sleeping across the capital.
Between July and September, 2,086 people were recorded as sleeping rough for the first time in London, the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) database shows.
This represents a 13% increase on the same period last year and a 29% increase on the previous quarter.
The database, the UK’s most comprehensive source of information about rough sleeping, shows an overall total of 4,068 people were sleeping rough in the capital between July and September – a 12% annual increase.
It is London’s highest quarterly rough sleeping count since records began.
London’s deputy mayor for housing, Tom Copley, said the capital was ‘particularly well placed to warn of the significant additional pressures now facing rough sleeping services as a result of a combination of rising cost of living pressures and inadequate Government policy.’
In a letter to housing and homelessness minister Felicity Buchan, Mr Copley said: ‘I urge you and your colleagues across Government to act now to prevent homelessness spiralling this winter.’
He said the rise in rough sleeping included people leaving Home Office asylum seeker accommodation, and said the Government must stop refugees being pushed into homelessness by reviewing the Streamlined Asylum Process and extending the move-on period to 56 days.
London Councils' executive member for regeneration, housing and planning, Darren Rodwell, said: 'After several years of solid progress in reducing rough sleeping, it is devastating to see rough sleeping skyrocket to a record high.
'Local support services are under immense pressure and the situation is spiralling out of control.'
The director of social change at Homeless Link, Fiona Colley, said: ‘The number of new people being forced to sleep rough in London is both tragic and shameful.
‘The city is acutely impacted by the critical shortage of affordable homes, prolonged inflation and soaring rents being suffered up and down the country.’
